Today both Will and I had the most comprehensive eye exam we have ever had! We had the privilege of spending the day with the fabulous and gifted Dr Richard Colo in Suffield, Connecticut. What we learned was ALOT about eyes!

We learned that you can be all right eye dominant or all left eye dominant and yet there were also numerous degrees of dominance in between the two as well! Yes folks, there are “DEGREES OF DOMINANCE”. This has many facets of course and means nothing for some folks yet for others, well, they may need a tweak here and a tweak there.

To that note, there are degrees of occlusion which isn’t simply a spot on the lense, but the degrees of opaqueness of the spot! The choices of needing a patch to correct a visual shift can also be dependant on how your vision relates with your style of shooting; ie, pre-mounted, transitional or low gun. We learned there is a definitive time to decide to either blink or close the eye of a cross dominant shooter and when you should simply spot the lens of the master eye and shoot with both eyes open.

Today’s discussions and personal revelations have been particularly interesting for us and will be intensely studied and used as we come across eye issues and questions on a daily basis during our lessons. ​

I personally have worked long and hard to find a solution and final resolution to my cross dominance. Today, by combining my eye exam and watching me shoot Dr. Colo and I came to that solution. The answer for me was, as a predominately low gun shooter, to use tape to block the lense over my left eye and shoot with both eyes open. It also became very apparent that finding my visual hold point was as important, if not more so, than my physical hold point when calling for the bird.

Will and I cannot say enough about Dr. Colo generously spending his time (on his 51st wedding anniversary no less) with us and openly and happily sharing his wealth of knowledge with us. He has shared his time and his amazing and deep knowledge with many other instructors, top shooters, weekend clay warriors, and even bird hunters! For Will and I it was wonderful for us to be able to fill in the blanks of things we have observed over the years with our students. We thank him for his willingness to share his invaluable insights with us and other instructors. If we understand the nuances of the eyes and how they work with the brain and thus our eye/hand coordination, it can do nothing but help shooters get better. We left feeling extremely grateful there are such fabulous folks in our sport! Dr. Colo, thank you for all you do and share with so many of us in the shooting sports! Your enthusiasm and joy as you shared your time and gifts with us today was wonderful to experience and especially for this old gal! I “saw” things today in a whole different perspective, in more ways than one! Thank you for the best eye exam ever and insights to my way of seeing things and shooting things.....many puns intended! For more about Dr. Colo click here